History of the Viennese Coffeehouse
History of the Viennese Coffeehouse
“If you are worried about something - - - go to a café! ....
If you hate and detest the people but nevertheless cannot do without them - - - go to a café! If nobody pays you credit any longer - - - go to a café!”
This is what Peter Altenberg, Vienna’s probably most famous coffeehouse writer, wrote in 1918, thus characterizing the traditional Viennese café as a place where the guest feels like home though not at home. People come here in order to meet friends, to read the newspaper, to discuss, to make business, to borrow money and to indulge in any kind of games, for traditionally the classical Viennese café always offered several pool tables as well as tables where people could play chess or card games.
The history of the Viennese coffeehouse goes back to Vienna’s liberation from the Turkish by the imperial troops in the year 1683. For nearly two months the Turkish army, led by the Grand Vizier Mustafa, had besieged Vienna. On September 12th an imperial relief force, supported by Southern German and Polish troops, finally managed to drive back the Turkish army. The chaotic retreat of the Turkish troops left the victorious army with rich treasures that the Turkish had to leave behind, amongst others several sacks of coffee, a luxury good which up to this time was completely unknown to the Viennese. Legend has it that Georg Franz Kolschitzky (a translator, imperial messenger and businessman) founded the first Viennese coffeehouse called “Zur blauen Flasche” (“The Blue Bottle”) briefly after the end of the Turkish Siege of Vienna. The foundation of the first Viennese coffeehouse, however, is historically documented only on 17th January 1685, when the Armenian Johannes Deodat (who in some sources is referred to as a Greek national) was granted the right to publically serve coffee. He did so in the house in which he lived, at Haarmarkt, what today would be Rotenturmstraße 14. Until the year 1700 another four cafés were founded. Furthermore about 30 so-called “Wasserbrenner” (distillers) existed, who were allowed to produce liquids “by distilling”, which at this time did not only refer to distilling liquors but also to brewing coffee. The four coffeehouse owners, Isaak de Luca, Rudolf Perg, Andreas Pein and Stefan Devich, however, were not very happy about this kind of competition and fiercely fought against it - successfully.
- Georg Franz Kolschitzky
On 16th July 1700 Emperor Leopold I granted them the exclusive right to prepare coffee, tea, chocolate or similar beverages and serve them in public facilities in Vienna. Due to this new regulation the coffeehouse owners had got rid of the “distillers”, and briefly afterwards they founded the Association of Coffeehouse Operators. In 1714 there were already 11 bourgeois coffeehouses in Vienna. On 4th May Emperor Karl VI granted them a special patent protecting their businesses, which later, in the year 1751, was confirmed by his successor Empress Maria Theresa. The number of coffeehouses increased steadily: in 1737 already 37 coffeehouses existed, in 1770 48, fourteen years later the complete number of coffeehouses in Vienna amounted to 64 and briefly after the turn of the century to 89, and in 1819 already more than 150 coffeehouses served the stimulating beverage in Vienna.
At this time the character and atmosphere of the Viennese coffeehouses changed considerably. In the 17th and 18th centuries the cafés were usually dark establishments that did not offer any kind of comfort. The first coffeehouse owner, who in about 1770 opened a luxuriously furnished café, was Johann Evangelist Milani. His café, which was located at Kohlmarkt, had a large entrance hall which was decorated with huge mirrors, and the café also offered a games room equipped with several pool tables. In 1808 the legendary “Silberne Kaffeehaus”, which was run by the well-known coffee-brewer Ignaz Neuner, started to serve coffee. The name of the café was related to the fact that in this coffeehouse the coffee was served in silver pots and that the guests could hang their coats on silver hooks. Convenient and cosy furnishing and facilities including pool tables soon were the standard equipment of the classical Viennese café.
- seated cashier
At this time the so-called “seated cashier” (Sitzkassiererin) started to become a typical feature of the Viennese café. She was usually the only female in the café who – seated at the cash desk behind the buffet – did not just collect the cash from the customers but also enjoyed flirting and coquetting with the male guests. Towards the end of the 18th century a new type of café came into being, the concert café. The first one of these cafés, called Café Bellevue, was founded by Martin Wiegand in 1788. Most of the concert cafés which were set up at this time were located in the Vienna Prater, the former imperial hunting grounds, which in 1776 were opened to the general public. In the Prater there were the “First Café”, the “Second Café” and the “Third Café”. They had big stages where famous musicians such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Josef Lanner, Johann and Eduard Strauß as well as Carl Michael Ziehrer played their music to the guests. During the Biedermeier period garden or summer cafés were founded, which due to their beautiful setting at the outskirts of Vienna were popular destination for family outings.
From the 1870ies the function of the cafés changed completely: What once was a domain exclusively reserved to men now slowly became a place for the entire family. These family cafés offered special lady parlours, where women met for their “coffee parties”. Moreover the first cafés including patisseries were founded at this time. These were attended above all by women and families. Here the guests indulged in the perfect combination of coffee and sweets, which soon became a popular feature in classical coffeehouses too, though these establishments maintained their traditional features such as the “seated cashier” and the pool or gambling tables and remained a place to be attended exclusively by men.
The food which was offered in the classical coffeehouses were mainly egg-based dishes (soft boiled eggs, “egg in the glass”, i.e. a soft-boiled egg served peeled in a glass, scrambled eggs, ham & eggs and omelettes). The classical sweets served in Viennese coffeehouses were Kipferl (croissants), Gugelhupf (a kind of ring cake), Buchteln (sweet jam-filled buns), Krapfen (Austrian-style donuts) as well as the 3 classical Viennese strudel varieties: the traditional apple strudel as well as strudels with poppy-seed and nut fillings. As an extra treat a house cake was often offered too, which usually was the specialty of this particular café.
What socially speaking was the club in the Anglo-Saxon countries, was the coffeehouse in Vienna. Here was where the intellectual, artistic, scientific, economic and political elite of the Habsburg Empire met. The café fascinated the people, and it was an incredibly attractive place for them to go. Therefore the Viennese coffeehouse was soon imitated in all countries which belonged to the Danube Monarchy. Viennese-style cafés existed in practically every district capital of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which at that time comprised 676 615 km² and 53 million inhabitants. Wherever you went, from Innsbruck to Lemberg, from Prague to Sarajevo, from Trieste to Czernowitz, you were able to find a nice café of the Viennese tradition.
When in November 1918 the huge Habsburg Empire fell apart, one of the few achievements which continued to exist in all of the newly founded independent states was the classical Viennese café. Also in Austria, which had shrunk to a tiny state, the café was still prospering. For example in 1938, 1238 licensed cafés existed in Vienna. After the 2nd World War the coffeehouse culture, however, changed dramatically. In the 1950ies a smaller version of the coffeehouse came into being: the espresso. Here a new method was used to make coffee – the espresso machine which had been imported from Italy, though the traditional cafés were still brewing their coffee in the traditional way. As the “espresso” soon became extremely popular due to its great flavour and it can be prepared quickly and easily, the espresso machine soon found its way into the traditional Viennese coffeehouses too. However, the new brewing method did not have any major impact on the great variety of coffee specialties served in the classical Viennese coffeehouses: what used to be a double mocha is still a double mocha and an “Einspänner” is still an “Einspänner”.
